A 61 Squadron Hampden at Hemswell being bombed up prior to a mission. My thanks to Mr D'Arcy-Wright for this photograph.

Five Hampdens of 61 Squadron took off from their base at Hemswell in Lincolnshire at 19.09 hrs on the 5th of October 1940. The weather this evening was noted as "extremely bad, with gale blowing, icing and low cloud as well as rain". They were to drop mines in the "Eglantine" area at the Elbe Estuary. However, only three aircraft were sucessful in this and the other had to jettison before making the return leg of the journey. Due to the bad weather over England, the home airfield had become unservicable through mud and P/O Wright's aircraft was told to divert north to another airfield (thought to be Leeming in Yorkshire). For reasons unknown, although presumed to be through bad visibility, the Hampden crashed on the North Yorkshire Moors, just east of Rosedale with the loss of all on board. Almost certainly hopelessly lost in cloud at the time of the crash they are thought to have been flying roughly in a south-easterly direction. The aircraft first clipped the ground close to the Egton to Rosedale road and lost its propellers, this road was close to the highest part of the ridge. The aircraft continued for about half a mile and crashed some way down the moor from its first impact. Due to the location of where the crash occured, which was very close to a road, it is thought that almost all of the aircraft was removed in the days after the crash.

The crew had only been together for six days, all but the pilot having being crewed up on the 30th of September but with Sgt Oakley as pilot. Four days prior to their fatal crash, four aircraft from 61 Squadron, including P/O Wright and his crew had attacked an oil refinery in Hamburg, however P/O Wright had returned early from the mission due to radio trouble.

The aircraft was built to contract B994449/39 by E.E.C. Ltd. at Salmesbury and after delivery to MU in August 1940 it was issued to 61 Sqdn at Hemswell. It was written off with Cat W/FB damage in the above incident on 6th October 1940.

Pilot - P/O Gerald D'arcy Wright RAF, aged 25, buried Leeming Churchyard, Yorkshire. Served as Wright.

Obs - Sgt William A Cannon RAFVR, aged 28, of Westcliff-on-Sea, buried Shoeburyness, Essex. He was the organist at St. Andrews Church, Shoeburyness before the War.

Air Gunner - Sgt Walter B Rayment RAFVR, aged 26, of Henfield, buried Henfield, Sussex.

W Op / Air Gunner - Sgt Alan Algar RAFVR, aged 19, of Derby, buried Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby.

The pilot, Gerald D'Arcy-Wright's headstone at Leeming Church Yard. His parents travelled the world, his father may well have been in the Canadian Army. Whilst working for Ceylonese Rubber in India, Gerald's brother George was born, Gerald was born two years later in 1914 in Montreal, Canada. The family came to England where Gerald's father died in 1916 and later his mother died in 1922 both from TB related illnesses. Gerald and his brother were put into a boarding school in England, thought to have been at Bishop Stotsford. After his schooling he was employed as a car mechanic at a garage in Sussex prior to joining up. The school has a plaque containing all the names of former pupils who were lost during the War, his name being one of them. His brother George would later marry Britiah Hilda and have a son, Warwick (who passed away in the UK in December 2002). George returned to New Zealand soon after marrying where he also died at a young age.